The present invention relates to apparatus for removing a protective cover from a radome, and has particular relation to such apparatus which operates explosively or pyrotechnically.
A missile may be constructed to home in on its target by means of a radar at its nose. This radar must be protected by a radome. The radome itself must be further protected, since the radar will not be operated until the terminal phase of the mission, but the radome will be subjected to high speed winds and other environmental conditions during the entire mission. When new, the radome is uniform and therefore has no effect, or, at least, a predictable effect, on the passage of radar beams through it. If it is ablated or otherwise damaged by wind or other environmental conditions, this uniformity and predictability disappears. It is therefore desirable to have a radome cover which is removed during the final moments of the mission, when the radar is actually in operation. The radome cover need not be manufactured to be uniform because it will become nonuniform during the initial and middle phases of the mission, and because it will be removed before the radar is actually turned on.
One possible means of removing a radome cover, as described in the Brumbaugh application referred to above, is to slit the front end of the cover and peal back the front end of the resulting strips. The self same wind whose existence caused the presence of the radome cover will then peal the radome cover off the radome, tearing the strips apart as it goes.
The foregoing radome cover removal system works well at high wind speeds and low temperatures. When temperatures get hot, however, the apparatus for spreading the nascent strips apart from the nose of the radome may simply sag into the radome cover rather than separate it from the radome, and the wind may be too weak to tear the strips from the radome. It is therefore important to have a positive system for removing the radome cover, especially in hot temperatures and low wind speeds. Further, the peeling strips of the radome cover of the Brumbaugh application must be fairly thin in order to tear apart from one another if the removal command is given at a relatively low missile speed. However, this necessary thinness may result in premature (uncommanded) removal of the cover at relatively high speeds. The radome cover of the Brumbaugh application therefore may be limited to use only at intermediate speeds.